Rochester - When Rob Zettler gets in a reflective mood years from now and reviews the video from his first head coaching game in the pros, he'll like almost everything he sees.

Everything but the score.

Rochester Amerks goalie David Leggio took care of that.

Leggio shut down the Syracuse Crunch with 38 saves and Rick Schofield posted the only score of the game as the host Amerks slid past their visitors 1-0.

The result spoiled the pro head coaching debut of Zettler, who was promoted from a Crunch assistant when Jon Cooper was named bench boss in Tampa Bay on Monday.

"I was happy with the effort,'' Zettler said. "I thought we controlled the game. Bottom line, we didn't win. He (Leggio) made a lot of saves, but we kind of made it easy for him. There's a lot of stuff in that video we can build on.''

Rochester was obviously a haggard team after returning from a road trip to Oklahoma City and Texas, logging virtually no time in the Crunch end in the second and third periods. But the Crunch's attack couldn't finish at the other end, giving Leggio clear sightlines and rarely testing him from the perimeter.

"I don't remember dominating a team like that and not coming out with a win,'' said veteran Syracuse forward J.F. Jacques. "We did everything we could, we just didn't come out with a score.''

Zettler, a former NHL defenseman, takes the top spot with a background on that side of the ice, and the Crunch continued to look strong there. But Syracuse is clearly suffering a scoring drain as a result of the several finishing forwards who are on recall to the Lightning.

Through Syracuse's first 63 games of the season, it didn't drop any 1-0 games in regulation. Now, it has two such defeats in its past three games.

Syracuse forward Dan Sexton said his teammates talked between periods about the importance of breaking in Zettler as a winner, though despite tilting the ice toward Leggio that housewarming gift was out of stock.

"It's a little extra special tonight. It's unfortunate we couldn't take care of business,'' he said.

Despite the loss, the Crunch remains one point ahead of Providence and two in front of Binghamton in the race for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. The Crunch has 10 regular-season games left.

A lackluster first period seemed headed toward a scoreless conclusion until Schofield hit the back of the net with 41.3 seconds left. The Crunch defense lost track of Schofield, who found a prime spot in the slot and converted a pass from behind the net from Zemgus Girgensons and beat Syracuse goalie Riku Helenius.

The Crunch then owned the final 40 minutes and claimed a 29-10 edge in shots in that span. But Syracuse rang a couple of posts and yet again tried to get too artistic on its power play.

The Crunch was 0-for-2 with the man advantage, extending its power slump to four games (0-for-12). Sexton said the Amerks forced Syracuse to "dumb down'' its power play, taking away its down-low passing lanes and forcing shots from the perimeter.

"We were in their zone the whole time,'' Sexton said. "We just have to get shots through. It's tough. We're still trying to get bounces so we get rebounds.''

The Crunch also had a new face as second in charge on Wednesday. Marty Raymond worked his first game as assistant after the Lightning sent him down on Monday as part of the Cooper shuffle.

Raymond, 45, has been an assistant coach with the Lightning since July, 2010. Prior to joining the Tampa Bay organization Ryamond worked as an assistant for the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs during the 2009-10 campaign

The contest marked the Crunch debut of veteran NHL blueliner Brian Lee. Lee, sent down by the Lightning on Tuesday, was pointless im 22 games with Tampa Bay.

The Crunch travels to Norfolk for a pair of games there Friday and Saturday.